KANUM MONASTERY

Way below in the Sutlej
valleys in the Kinnaur area are the temples of
the Lotsaba era at Nako. Adorned with mandala murals and stuccoes, these
temples enshrine the legendary footprints of 'Padmasambhava' and 'Parguli'
devta.

Further downstream, on the Right Bank of the Sutlej, is the famous
monastery-village of Kanum. Kanum literally means the 'Place of Kangyur'.
It was a village rich in scriptural learning in the 11th century when
'Rin-Chen-Bzang-Po' established a school for scholastic learning here.

The Kangyur building is older than the books it houses. The sets of
Kangyur and Tangyur found here were printed out of the wooden blocks at
Narthang in 1820 AD as replacements of the originals destroyed by the
Gurkhas.

The inner faces of its walls are richly embellished with many stamped
square clay tablets. The Kangyur has had the distinction of playing host,
for three years, to Hungarian scholar Alexander Csoma-de-Koros.